2018 FIVB MEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND 2
- September 21-23, 2018
- Milan, Italy; Varna, Bulgaria; Bologna, Italy; Sofia, Bulgaria
- World Championships Event Page
The FIVB World Championships continues on September 21st with Round 2. There are 16 teams still left in the competition after Round 1 concluded on Tuesday. With a few days off before the volleyball resumes, VolleyMob will take the time to look at what teams are still in the tournament, which teams have been eliminated, where they are from, and what are they ranked.
World Rankings
Highest Ranked Team Not in Round 2: #10 Germany
Germany did not qualify for the World Championships, so they did not technically get eliminated in Round 1. Without getting the points from this major tournament, their ranking will surely fall. One should expect it to be around #24-26 when the new rankings come out.
Highest Ranked Team Eliminated in Round 1: #12 Japan
While Japan was ranked 12 at the time of the last FIVB rankings in 2016 and in the VolleyMob projected rankings after the Volleyball Nations League, their ranking seems a bit artificial. This was a team that could not qualify out of Asia for the 2014 World Championships, but qualified for 2015 World Cup because they were hosting the tournament. Half of their ranking points have come from that tournament. Their ranking consistently is higher than probably deserved because they host the World Cup every 4 years. Had they not been in that tournament (since they were probably the third or fourth team in Asia at the time), they would fall down to about #25. They were very close to advancing to Round 2. They beat Argentina on the last day of the initial stage, but since the match went to 5 sets, they finished behind the 2018 Pan Am Cup winners.
Lowest Ranked Team Still in the Tournament: #25 Netherlands
The Netherlands were once at the top of the volleyball world, winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. They won a silver medal at the 1997 FIVB Grand Champions Cup, but have not won a medal at a major FIVB competition since then. At this year’s World Championships they knocked off #1 Brazil and #9 France on consecutive days. They come into Pool E ranked second with a 5-1 record behind Italy.
Rankings of the Teams Still in the Tournament:
- #1 Brazil
- #2 United States
- #3 Poland
- #4 Italy
- #4 Russia
- #6 Canada
- #7 Argentina
- #8 Iran
- #9 France
- #11 Serbia
- #14 Bulgaria
- #15 Belgium
- #16 Australia
- #18 Finland
- #23 Slovenia
- #25 Netherlands
Geographic Regions
Region With the Most Teams Still in the Tournament: Europe (CEV)
This is not a surprise since there were more teams from Europe than any other continent who qualified for the World Championships. Europe had 2 host country teams, the defending champions from 2014 and 7 teams come out of CEV qualifiers. European teams comprised 48% of the initial tournament field. What is impressive is that all 10 of those teams qualified for Round 2. 63% of the teams remaining in the tournament are from Europe.
Region With the Fewest Teams Still in the Tournament: Africa (CAVB)
Cameroon, Egypt, and Tunisia all qualified for the World Championships, but they all failed to advance out of Round 1.
Region With the Most Teams Eliminated: Tie Between Africa (CAVB) and North America/Central America/Carribean (NORCECA)
As mentioned above, Africa had all 3 of its representatives conclude their campaigns towards the 2018 World Championship. The NORCECA also saw 3 of its 5 teams get eliminated as well. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic were all eliminated going into the last day of the initial round. The eliminated NORCECA teams only accounted for 1 win and that win came against another NORCECA team (Cuba defeated Puerto Rico). The United States and Canada are the NORCECA representatives still competing.
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